Ambassador Designate of Sweden to Canada, Signe Burgstaller, has served in the Swedish foreign office since 1992, with postings in Prague, Washington, D.C., and Pristina, Kosovo.
Among other positions, she has been Deputy Head of Mission at the Swedish Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, as well as Deputy Head of the Security Policy Department at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. She has served as Ambassador of Sweden in Moldova and most recently as Ambassador of Sweden in Khartoum, Sudan.
The Ambassador-Designate of Finland to Canada is Jari Vilén. Mr. Vilén was born and raised in Kemi, in northern Finland, and earned his Masters in Education at the University of Oulu, also in northern Finland. He served as MP for Finland’s northernmost District, Lapland, from 1999 to 2007. He was the Finnish Minister for Foreign Trade and European Affairs from 2002 to 2003.
Mr. Vilén was appointed Finland’s Ambassador to Hungary in 2007, where he served for five years, then Ambassador to Poland for two years, before being appointed as Finland’s Ambassador and Senior Adviser for Arctic Policy at the European Commission until 2020. His most recent posting has been as Finland's Ambassador for Barents and Northern Dimension.
Mr. Vilén has learned English, French, Swedish, Italian, German, Hungarian, and Polish. He and his wife Eva are the parents of Maximilian.
The Canadian Nordic Society welcomes Ms Burgstaller and Mr. Vilén to Canada and hope they both enjoy their stay here. As honorary members of the Canadian Nordic Society, we look forward to the pleasure of meeting them!